Big Year 2017

Monday, 20 June 2016

Bye Ocean!!

This update was taken from the Facebook page of the Barbados RSPCA

A tremendous thank you to our wonderful boss, Mrs. Charmaine Hatcher. Last week a Great Shearwater Bird washed up on our shores. No one is
certain how or why she ended up here. These birds spend their lives in
the great oceans, only coming to land to breed.We are no experts on these birds, so quite a bit of research was done in short order. For the first few days Mrs. Hatcher had to force feed her. Despite
having not eaten for God knows how long, her instinctual fear of humans was clearly displayed with her curved beak. It was fascinating to see this bird only after a few days pick up the
routine feeding time and even became excited to see Charmaine during the
morning feeds.

Charmaine would fetch her a five gallon container of sea water daily, to pour into a wading pool. Lo and behold, this girl became so comfortable she began “diving” and fishing on her own. No more force feeding.

We were ecstatic!!!
She appeared strong enough to be released and this weekend was going to
be her big day. A fishing vessel owned by a family member was going to
be her ride out into deep water, saving her energy and time heading into
the open ocean.

On Friday morning our hearts sunk… overnight she had taken a most
dreadful turn for the worse. We are completely baffled at the turn of
this event. We took her up to the surgery to stomach feed her. Even before we got started, she quietly passed away in Mrs Hatcher's arms.

Sometimes in life no matter how hard you try or how much you may want…you cannot save them all. We, over the many years have painfully learned this.

Thank you for all your efforts and attempts to restore a balance in this girl’s life.